1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to medical devices and methods. In particular, the present idea relates to improved guide wires or catheters and method for their use, where the devices have a distal mechanism that acts as a mechanism for: 1. Flow Directed, using the natural flowing fluids, pressure differentials or contractile forces of the body onto the distal mechanism to direct its motion and direction or 2. Anchored, so that once the device is in the desired location, it can be anchored against the tissue where it rests; 3. Tensioned, so that placement of a device, over the guide wire is accomplished with less difficulty and 4. Occluded, so that vessels and aneurysms can be occluded.
Guide wire management in the operating room is problematic, and threading the needle of the arteries or other vessels including, but not limited to veins, intestines, fallopian tubes, etc. to reach the area to be treated is difficult. Further, once the guide is in the desired location, it is often difficult to make certain that the it remains in that location. Even further, once the guide wire, catheter, endoscope or other device is in the desired location and another device is placed over, through or along side it, the initially placed device has a tendency to move due to the forces exerted on it when other devices are using it as a guide.
Additionally, other anchors are required for attaching tissue or other matter to improved or different locations within the body.
Even further, vessel occluders are often required for a variety of medical procedures.
The instant invention describes a device that facilitates all of these procedures in a novel fashion.
For these reasons, it is desirable to provide an improved devices and methods for their use, which facilitate 1. using the physiologic motions of the body to help direct the device. In addition, flow pressure differential can be artificially created or enhanced by the technician/physician so that this same technology can be used when physiologic means is unavailable or insufficient. Further, the natural contractile forces of the body (e.g. those of the intestinal tract, gall bladder, esophagus, etc.) can be harnessed so that the device including, but not limited to guide wires, catheters, endoscopes, etc. are moved along with those forces. 2. Even further, it is desirable to provide a device that has an anchoring mechanism on it so that it will not move once in its desired position. 3. And yet even another desired characteristic would be to provide an anchored device that has a tensioning characteristic applied to it for placement of other devices over through or along side the first placed device. 4. And finally, another desired characteristic is that of a simple and effective occlusion system.
There is a continuing need for improved devices to meet at least the following objectives.
The first objective is to reduce cost. This is particularly important in recent years where it is clear for safety and sanitary reasons that these will be single use devices. A device, although it performs a function in some improved manner, will not be widely used if it is considerably more costly than the alternatives available.
A second objective is to provide a device that is simple to use and in a very real sense simple to understand. This will encourage its adoption and use by medical personnel. It will also tend to keep cost low.
The third objective is to provide a device that entails a procedure with which the medical profession is familiar so that the skills that have been learned from previous experience will continue to have applicability.
A fourth objective relates to the effectiveness and thoroughness with which the device is intended.
A fifth objective concerns safety; a matter which is often so critical as to trump the other considerations. It is important to avoid unnecessary tissue trauma.
There are trade-offs in design considerations to achieve the above five interrelated objectives. Extreme simplicity and a very simple procedure might over compromise safety. Addressing all of these considerations calls for some trade-off between the objectives.
Accordingly, a major object of this invention is to provide an improved occlusion, tensioning, anchoring and flow device that achieves the objectives of reduced cost, enhanced simplicity, a standard procedure, high effectiveness and a high degree of safety. Most particularly, it is an object of this invention to achieve these objectives with an enhanced trade-off value for the combined objectives.
For these reasons, it is desirable to provide an improved device that may circumvent some of the problems associated with previous techniques. This improved medical device provides a new configuration that will eliminate some of those problems and methods for their use, which facilitate removal of vascular obstructions in the operating room or interventional suite.
In brief, one embodiment of this invention is particularly adapted to the anchoring of wires or tubes within the tubular channels of the body including, but not limited to veins, arteries, intestines, nasal passages, ear canal, etc. Further, this anchoring embodiment has a applicability in applying an anchor to tissues or other matter to areas of the body other than in tubular channels including, but not limited to the face, breast joints, etc. This embodiment has a support wire with an engaging element.
The support wire is a dual element support wire having a core and an annular shell that slides on the core. The distal end of the core is attached to the distal end of the annular braided element and the distal end of the shell is attached to the proximal end of the annular braided element. Thus movement of the core and shell relative to one another moves the braided element from a radially retracted position which is useful for insertion into the body to a radially expanded position which expands it to the sidewall of the tubular channel or against other tissue or matter within the body. When the annular braided element is in its radially compressed (smaller diameter) state, it can be passed through or around occlusions together with the rest of the wire to reside on the distal end of the occlusion in the case of tubular channels with occlusions. It is a preferred embodiment of the instant invention that it can be made very small. When the braided element is expanded and pulled proximally (that is, in a retrograde fashion), it will engage the walls of the tubular channel and the elongate support wire can be put into tension. This distal engaging tubular braid element may or may not be covered by or integrated with a thin film or membrane to create patency or other desirable characteristics.
The instant invention also describes another use of the same device of the instant invention with minor changes. In this case, the tubular braid distal expansile mechanism may be used on the end of a guide wire or catheter so that once deployed in a tubular channel with flow such as arteries and veins, the expanded mechanism can carry the support wire in the direction of the flow. In order to accomplish this flow characteristic of the instant invention, it may be desirable to deploy the distal expanding tubular braid whereby the support wire becomes xe2x80x98floppyxe2x80x99 in nature so that it will flow with the expanded xe2x80x98umbrellaxe2x80x99. The author uses the phrase xe2x80x98umbrellaxe2x80x99 only as a communication tool in that an umbrella starts out with a small diameter shaft in its un-deployed condition (radially compressed condition) and ends up with a large diameter configuration when deployed. The shape of the expanding mechanism is varied and includes, but is not limited to an umbrella shape, a spheroid shape, an ovoid shape, a conical shape, a disc-shape, etc. The inventors have fabricated at least all of the aforementioned shapes using tubular/annular braid and successfully tested the flow, anchoring, tensioning and occlusion characteristics in both a static and dynamic in vitro environment. Creating the expanded annular braided mechanism is accomplished by pulling the inner wire of the support wire out of the outer tube. The outer tube can be made of very flexible material so that the inner wire gives the structure all of the support. When the xe2x80x98umbrella reaches the desired location which is usually determined by image intensification including, but not limited to x-ray, ultrasound, MRI, etc., the inner wire can be re-inserted into the flexible outer tube of the support wire to give the desired support required. Also once the xe2x80x98umbrellaxe2x80x99 with the flexible outer tube needs to be removed, the inner wire can be an actuator to un-deploy the expanded braided element back to its smaller and radially compressed size. This is accomplished by bonding the outer tube of the support wire to the distal end of the tubular braid expanding element and the inner wire of the support wire is slightly bonded to the distal end of the braided expanding element. This slight bond could also be an interference fit where the inner wire snaps into and out of the distal end of the braided expanding element.
Even further, by making another minor change to the instant invention would be to use the braided expanding element as a permanent or temporary occluder without the support wire being left in place. This is accomplished by having the outer tube not bonded to the proximal end of the expanding element and the inner wire of the support wire to be only slightly bonded to the distal end of the expanding braided element. In this case, the inner wire is pulled in a retrograde direction relative to the outer tube. This action causes the expanding braided element to expand radially. Once the expanding element expands to the desired shape for the particular application and occlusion, the inner wire is pulled out of the xe2x80x98snapxe2x80x99 or interference fit on the distal end of the expanding braided element and the expanded braid occluder is left in place when both the inner and outer member of the support wire is removed from the body.
Hence, nearly the same invention allows the use for four different applications in the health care field.
The instant invention provides an improved device of the type having a shaft with a proximal end and a distal end. The improvement comprises configuring at least a distal portion of the shaft so that it can assume a shape(s) along its shaft (proximally, mid-section or distally) that will act as an xe2x80x98umbrellaxe2x80x99 type configuration. In the case of body channels or cavities, this expanded mechanism(s) is moved along the lumen (artery, vein, intestine, stent, graft, or other hollow vessel or organ) until it is in the desired location and is then deployed. For using the instant invention as a flow directed device, the expanding element is deployed when in position to be carried with the flow in the channel. Once the device is in the desired location, the user (physician/technician) can actuate the expanding mechanism(s) so that it is enlarged beyond its original size/diameter and aid in carrying the support wire, anchoring the wire, tensioning the wire or causing occlusion. MIS (Minimally Invasive Surgery) or LIS (Least Invasive Surgery) devices described herein such as catheters and guide wires, for example are the most common tools used by least invasive interventionalists today. These devices are available in a variety of shapes and sizes from 0.008-500xe2x80x3 diameters and from 6.0-80.0xe2x80x3 in length. In other respects, the catheters and guide wires or other device(s) of the instant invention will have the geometries, characteristics, and dimensions of those commonly employed for the intended purpose (e.g. introduction to a blood vessel (LIS) or surgical tissue anchoring or occlusion (MIS). MIS and LIS are often interchanged in their usage. Usually LIS refers to catheters, guide wires, (and the like) that are used within the body, often within the channels of the body. MIS typically refers to videoscopic surgery where miniature cameras are used to accomplish surgery. However, because of the large crossover of the use of these terms, the inventors do not wish to limit the scope of the devices described herein when these terms are used.
Further, the instant invention provides for an anchor located along its shaft (usually at its distal portion). This anchor allows the device to maintain the desired position once it is in the desired location.
Even further, the anchor of the instant invention allows a tension to be applied to the so that another structure can be more easily placed with the first device. Alternatively this tension may not be required, but just the anchor so that an another member can be advanced with the help of the first member and without loosing the preferred location.
Guide wires are the most common tools used by least invasive interventionalists today. These guide wires are available in a variety of shapes and sizes from 0.008-0.045xe2x80x3 diameters and from 6.0-80.0xe2x80x3 in length. In other respects, the guide wires of the present idea will have the geometries, characteristics, and dimensions of those commonly employed for the intended purpose, e.g. introduction to a blood vessel. Typically, for vascular applications, the flexible core will have a length in the range from 10 cm to 300 cm diameter and in the range from 0.1 mm to 1 mm.
Additionally there are a variety of configurations such as floppy, J-Tip, stiff, Moveable Core, Nitinol, Stainless Steel, Polymer Coated, Lubricious Coated, just to name a few. The instant invention can be used with any of the existing guide wires that are commercially available today and that may become commercially available in the future. As stated above the characteristic design of the instant invention is that at least a portion of the distal end of the wire (or other device) has some mechanism that allows physiological forces (or other artificially created forces) in the lumens of the body to carry the guide wire to a desired location or that the distal shape mechanism allows for anchoring or that the distal shape allows for tension to be applied to the wire, catheter or other device or that the distal expanded braided element is used as an occluder.
2. Description of the Background Art
Pertinent descriptions are set forth in a number of issued U.S. patents, including U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,275,611, 5,312,360, 4,696,304, 5,176,659, 5,437,631, 5,606,979, 5,779,672, 5,456,667, 5,733,294 and 5,209,727. A pin vise for helping grip the proximal end of a guide wire is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,858,810. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,275,611, 5,312,360 describe a tension guide and dilator. U.S. Pat. No. 5,779,672 describes a detachable inflatable occlusion balloon. U.S. Pat. No. 5,456,667 describes a temporary stent on a catheter. U.S. Pat. No. 5,733,294 describes a self-expanding cardiovascular occlusion device. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,437,631, 5,591,204 and 5,383,897 describe a puncture wound sealer. U.S. Pat. No. 5,626,614 describes a tissue anchor for anchoring the stomach to the abdominal wall. U.S. Pat. No. 4,372,293 describes an instrument for the surgical correction of ptotic breasts. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,730,733 and 5,336,205 describe flow-assisted catheters.